Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb by David C. Cassidy

Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb Reviews

• 
  OD2

  Excellent. But still no answer as to whether Heisenbergs conscience was the reason the Nazis did not get the bomb. He may have just equivocated to Hitler saying that it would take too long to develop an atomic bomb? We will never know.
• 
  忠右エ門

  Heisenbergは量子力学の発展における巨匠です。もちろんノーベル賞をもらっています。彼は「部分と全体」(Der Tail und Das Ganze)という哲学と科学を融合した、自分と量子力学のかかわりを軸にした実に魅力的な著書を表しています。この本を読んだ私は、彼こそ私の師（若者の思い込みですが）と思いました。しかし彼が第2次大戦中ドイツに残り、ヒットラーのもとで研究をつづけたことを知り、少しづつ崇拝が薄れました。アメリカが原子爆弾開発に踏み切った要因の一つは、彼のような（彼だけではありませんが）優秀な科学者がドイツに残っていることでした。もちろん科学者は、宗教家がそうであるように、皆が平和主義者ではありません。著者Cassidyは豊富な資料を基に、Heisenbergがどのように考えて行動したかを推測しようとしています。過去にさかのぼって人の心の中を推し量るのは、しょせん限りがあると思いますが、戦争の行方を左右する立場になりえた科学者の伝記として、皆様に一読をお勧めします。
• 
  Miketang

  A fantastic read. This is not for someone seeking detailed explication of Heisenbergs physics (the author deals with that extensively in an earlier work). Rather it is a thorough and judicious investigation of Heisenbergs personal development, his roots in German society and culture and his consequent inability to abandon the country after the Nazis came to power. Heisenberg has often been accused of turning a blind eye, even actively colluding, with the Nazi regime. But this volume provides a necessary corrective to that superficial view. In fact he experience enormous difficulties with the Nazi bureaucracy, incessant and virulent attacks from the Nazi scientists Lenard and Starck, which at various times threatened to bring him down. It was ironically a dispute between warring factions of the Nazi bureaucracies in which after long scrutiny he was supported by Himmler and his faction that saved him. In circumstances where he chose to stick it out in his own country under often life threatening pressure from a dictatorship, could he avoid or be blamed for his actions? Yes, he could have quit like Einstein (whose life admittedly was under threat), Schrodinger and others. But Cassidy shows why he did not and in not doing so that he did not choose the easy option. The later sections about Heisenbergs involvement with the Nazi nuclear bomb research are also interesting, although it turns out the Germans were far behind the US/British project and the Nazis swallowed the theoretically but not technically feasible assumption. Its clear that German scientists, including Heisenberg, were astounded by how far in advance their US/British counterparts were. The hubris of assuming German superiority in science, no doubt. The latter third or so of the book is dominated by this story, which therefore rather submerges other aspects of Heisenbergs life. The final chapter is a very rapid conspectus of Heisenbergs later years as a public figure. Admittedly the source material may have been less voluminous. Or it may just be that after the excitement of the youthful discoveries (physics and math seems generally a young mans trade, pace Schodringer), inevitably the interest flags. To that extent the investigation of Heisenbergs role vis a vis the Nazis and the bomb project may make his life revealing as a proxy for the scientist ethics society debate than those of most of his scientific peers. Cassidy is also particularly good on the historical background, something historians of science are not always so adept at. All in all, a well written and highly recommended study of Heisenberg, his society, his place in quantum mechanics and his times.
• 
  Robert

  excellent. Too much written about his childhood.
• 
  G. H. Lander

  Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the BombDavid C. CassidyBellevue Literary Press, NY, 2009David Cassidy has written what surely must be the definitive work on Werner Heisenberg. He clearly likes the subject, as this is his second book on the same person! The previous one: Uncertainty: The life and science of Werner Heisenberg appeared in 1991. The present book draws on material, has a wider scope, and at least on the subject of the German nuclear weapon program draws conclusions that would appear to this reviewer as beyond contention.After a brilliant career, the Nobel Prize in physics at the age of 31 (in 1932), Heisenberg was faced with the onset of the Nazi regime. His love of his country and culture meant that he refused to leave Germany. He never joined the Nazi party, but was faced with living, and working, with the regime. Cassidy finds this the most fascinating aspect of Heisenberg, and it is difficult to disagree.Many of Heisenbergs actions appear difficult to comprehend with the advantage of hindsight; for example, the famous visit to Niels Bohr in 1941 (the subject of Michael Frayns wonderful play) is covered in length. We also (since 2002) have the advantage of the Bohr archives to set the record straight on this visit. Cassidy puts them in perspective with what Heisenberg had to suffer at the hands of not only the regime, but also the German clique (led by Nobel Laureates Stark Lenard) who promoted Aryan Physics. Specifically, they tried to eliminate all references to Einstein and relativity, and, just for good measure, quantum mechanics as well. Heisenbergs work was inextricably tied into both concepts, and he was vigorously attacked. Cleared in 1937 by the personnel intervention of Heinrich Himmler (whose mother knew Heisenbergs), Heisenberg was greatly relieved, and came to have confidence in his judgment about the regime. He was terribly mistaken.With the discovery of fission at the end of 1938, Heisenberg, like most other physicists, became involved. He went on to head the main German effort to develop a nuclear threat. As explained by Cassidy, this was not successful due to competing efforts sponsored by different parts of the regime, as well as a lack of leadership and clear scientific, and technical, drive. Conditions in war time Germany, especially after the start of Allied bombing, were, of course, much difficult than in the US, but there were no great moral discussions. The notion (the infamous lesart) that the Germans did not develop the bomb because they did not want to is nonsense. Cassidy destroys this myth, as others have before, especially the Farm Hall tapes (edited by Bernstein and published in 1996). The German program was blighted by mistakes, both in physics and technology, and they never even got a reactor operating, which Fermi did for the Allies in Chicago in 1942.After the war Heisenberg used his considerable prestige to help rebuild both Germany and physics. In this, he deserves praise. Physics, as expected, had moved on, and he never made any lasting contribution after the war, but his legacy in physics is assured.Heisenberg was a brilliant physicist, and a man who knew right from wrong. Of all the senior German physicists who stayed in Germany during this dreadful time, only Max von Laue seems to have steered a path through the rocks he chose not to collaborate at all with the regime. Heisenbergs great error was to believe that he could somehow steer between the moral conflicts of the Nazi regime. He was to learn, to his cost, that if one sups with the devil, take a long spoon. Heisenbergs was not nearly long enough. David Cassidy has captured this conflict in a brilliant book and I do not expect him to produce a third biography.